1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel film cartridge and a camera system comprising a camera capable of using that film cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
To the cameras using a silver-halide film, the film cartridges which have already been put into practical use are of the 135 type (for 35 mm wide film), the 110 type, the disk type, etc.
At first, the 135 type has a single shaft within the film cartridge, on which a roll of film is wound as it is stored. When making exposures, the film is pulled out of the cartridge one frame by one frame. On consideration of the format size and the number of frames, the size of the cartridge housing is relatively small. Because the space efficiency is so good, this type has widely been used for the general purposes. But the free end of the film is pulled out from the cartridge to a reasonably long length, before the cartridge is loaded into the camera. Further, it is troublesome to bring the film tongue into connection with the take-up spool at right place. These operations have annoyed the users, particularly the beginner who is not accustomed to cameras. Another drawback is that there is a possibility of failure of the automatic loading by the damage of the perforations of the film due to their wrong engagement with the sprocket of the camera.
Next, in the 110 type, the supply shaft, the take-up shaft and an aperture portion are built in unified form with the cartridge housing, giving rise to an advantage that, even for the beginner, it is easy to load the film into the camera. But, because the film plane cannot be fixed when the exposure is being made, there is a drawback that the focus accuracy is low. Another drawback is that the size of the environment surrounding the aperture portion is limited by the cartridge.
Lastly, the disk type has a simple structure of construction, as it literally suggests, to the disk shape. Since the film is in the form of sheets, the focus accuracy is high. But, because a large plane space is necessary for the format size, there is a large drawback that the camera cannot be constructed in a compact form. Therefore, the use of this type has not been widespread.